At the end of May, the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing report (PDF) confirming allegations of severe abuse against mentally ill prisoners in a solitary confinement ward at a central Pennsylvania state prison. After nearly two-years of investigations, DOJ came to the same conclusions I did in a report for The Nation last May: that the conditions at the State Correctional Institution at Cresson (SCI Cresson) about 90 miles east of Pittsburgh were inhumane on a level that was “mentally torturous” to the prisoners, routinely leading “to psychosis and a serious worsening” of prisoners’ mental health. The focus of DOJ’s (and my) investigation was a prison ward known as the Secure Special Needs Unit or SSNU. The SSNU houses mentally ill prisoners who have been deemed by administrators to be unruly or dangerous. Staffed by correctional officers as well as psychology staff, the SSNU is designed to oversee mentally ill prisoners and usher them carefully through a therapeutic, five-step mental health program toward re-entering the prison’s general population. Instead, the SSNU devolved into “chaotic conditions”; instead of providing therapy, the SSNU warehoused the mentally ill in solitary confinement for indefinite periods of time, in brutal, often unbelievable circumstances. One section describes a circumstance in which “three of Cresson’s psychology staff … witnessed a senior member of the staff telling SSNU prisoners with intellectual disabilities that they had to sing, ‘I’m a little teapot’ if they wanted to improve their living conditions and obtain more mental health treatment.” Though that description may sound like fiction, it soon became very real. That prisoner, who had an IQ of 70, devolved into near insanity due to his treatment at SCI Cresson. During five months in the SSNU, this prisoner fell into a “downward spiral,” the report describes. At no time was he offered group therapy or one-on-one therapy. He was mocked and taunted by correctional officers, called a “retard” repeatedly, forced to wear a thin, paper like smock in a solitary confinement cell while temperatures dropped to near freezing temperatures. COs spit in his food, declined to provide him with toilet paper, took away his mattress so he was forced to sleep on cold concrete. The report, which references the prisoner as “LL,” indicates “he was smearing feces on the wall of his cell” by May 2011. Two months later, he was threatening self-harm. The report continues: …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
